[Fwd: RE: FUNKNET reply re itkonen]

[Joan Bybee]

Dear friends.

I forward here a message from Brian Joseph, Editor of Language and Greg 
Stump, Review Editor. I let them know about the complaints posted on 
Funknet and they asked me to forward a reply to you all.

Having been a member of the Executive Committee of the LSA (the body 
that oversees the journal, Language) for a total of six years I can 
assure everyone that the editors and staff try very hard (with limited 
resources) to produce a fair and professional journal.

One way to have a say in this is for members of the LSA to vote in the 
ongoing election of Executive Committee members, and if you are not a 
member, please join.

Joan Bybee

To FUNKNET readers:
 
As the editors of LANGUAGE, we feel that the accusations made in this
forum by Esa Itkonen and Hans Peters about how we run the review
section of the journal cannot go unaddressed.

We first of all feel it is unfortunate that they chose to air their
alleged grievances in a public forum instead of bringing them to our
attention, but since they have done so, we feel obliged to respond.

We work very hard to ensure that all aspects of LANGUAGE's operations
are fair, professional, and transparent (note the "Letters to
LANGUAGE" section and the many Editor's Departments explaining
procedures and policies).  For the record, reviews that are
commissioned are *always* published; Dr. Itkonen's suggestion that
our policy is

  "Write a review, one that WE have solicited, so that we can throw it 
   away, and you'll never hear from us again!"

has no foundation whatsoever.

It is true that we do have a backlog of reviews; the review editor
from 2002 through 2005, Stanley Dubinsky, did such an excellent job
of reeling in reviews from authors that for the past several years
we have had far more reviews on hand than we could publish in any
given issue, leading to a backlog and, unfortunately, to some delays
in publication.  Moreover, our production process, aimed at
maintaining the high standards that LANGUAGE has always aspired to,
involves several stages of editorial review (this holds for article
submissions as well as reviews), by the review editor, the main
editor, and an independent copyeditor, and this process itself takes time.
 
Some authors, understandably, wonder what has become of their review
once it is submitted; we answer all such inquiries promptly.  We
received no such inquiry from Dr. Itkonen, despite what he says in his
posted message.
 
Dr. Itkonen's review, which we received via e-mail on May 23 2006 in
the review editor's office, has been in the queue for publication
since then, and is scheduled to enter the first stage of the process
within a few months, once other reviews that were received in the
review editor's office before his have entered into the production
process.  It is likely to appear therefore in the June or September
issue of 2008.

As for Dr. Peters' complaint that he never received the book we
supposedly commissioned him to review and that his inquiry about it
went unanswered, we frankly are puzzled.  Our records show that we
never commissioned a review by him, or by anyone, for the book in
question.  He must have confused LANGUAGE with some other journal.

If we sound defensive here it is only because we feel that we as
editors, and the journal as an institution, have been unfairly
criticized in this forum, and we hope to have set the record straight
with this message.  LANGUAGE is the journal of the Linguistic Society
of America and thus is responsive to the needs and interests of some
6,000 members of the world's linguistic community who belong to the
LSA, not to mention the larger community of nonmember linguists who
read the journal.  We welcome genuine and constructive criticism, as
our goal is to maintain the preeminent position the journal has
occupied in our field, and to work constantly to improve our
"product", the c. 250-page quarterly issues of the journal and the
scientific material pertaining to the study of language that they
contain.
 
Brian D. Joseph         &       Gregory T. Stump
Editor                          Review Editor
LANGUAGE